Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) [Illustration: Lincoln Highway near Soda Springs, Cal.] ACROSS THE CONTINENT BY THE LINCOLN HIGHWAY [Illustration] _By_ EFFIE PRICE GLADDING _ILLUSTRATED BY PHOTOGRAPHS_ NEW YORK BRENTANO'S 1915 _Copyright_, 1915, BY EFFIE PRICE GLADDING Manufactured by Rowland & Ives 225 Fifth Avenue New York _Dedicated to Lovers of the open road and the flying wheel._ "My country, 'tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, Of thee I sing." CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION 7 CHAPTER I 11 CHAPTER II 22 CHAPTER III 37 CHAPTER IV 57 CHAPTER V 76 CHAPTER VI 92 CHAPTER VII 111 CHAPTER VIII 142 CHAPTER IX 169 CHAPTER X 191 CHAPTER XI 210 CHAPTER XII 227 CHAPTER XIII 257 INTRODUCTION A FOREWORD THAT IS A RETROSPECT From the Pacific to the Atlantic by the Lincoln Highway, with California and the Virginias and Maryland thrown in for good measure! What a tour it has been! As we think back over its miles we recall the noble pines and the towering Sequoias of the high Sierras of California; the flashing water-falls of the Yosemite, so green as to be called Vernal, so white as to be called Bridal Veil; the orchards of the prune, the cherry, the walnut, the olive, the almond, the fig, the orange, and the lemon, tilled like a garden, watered by the hoarded and guarded streams from the everlasting hills; and the rich valleys of grain, running up to the hillsides and dotted by live oak trees. We recall miles of vineyard under perfect cultivation. We see again the blue of the Pacific and the green of the forest cedars and cypresses. High Lake Tahoe spreads before us, with its southern fringe of emerald meadows and forest pines, and its encircling guardians, lofty and snow-capped. The high, grey-green deserts of Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming stretch before us once more, and we can smell the clean, pungent sage brush. We are not lonely, for life is all about us. The California quail and blue-jay, the eagle, the ground squirrel, the gopher, the coyote, the antelope, the rattlesnake, the big ring snake, the wild horse of the plains, the jack rabbit, the meadow lark, the killdeer, the red-winged blackbird, the sparrow hawk, the thrush, the redheaded wood-pecker, the grey dove, all have been our friends and companions as we have gone along. We have seen them in their native plains and forests and from the safe vantage point of the front seat of our motor car. The lofty peaks of the Rockies have towered before us in a long, unbroken chain as we have looked at them from the alfalfa fields of Colorado.